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Sons of Versailles: Phoenix with ‘Trying To Be Cool’

I’m obsessed with the Château Versailles. I’ve spent a lot of time there. My boyfriend and I have been the last persons on the premises, begging workers for just another minute. I have traversed every inch of its sprawling splendor, bad-ass’ing through the 25 square miles of palace grounds on a golf cart with my boyfriend while pre-installed 17th century classical music blared through a shitty speaker box.

Hanging in my dining room is a 5-foot by 6-foot photograph we shot of the view from Marie Antoinette’s bedroom in her far-from-the-palace, rustic hideaway. So, I’m somewhat obsessed, and that might explain why I’ve been listening to Phoenix’s ‘Trying To Be Cool’ obsessively since June.

This indie quartet, made up of Thomas Mars, Deck d’Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz, hails from fabulous town of Versailles (See, there was something to this obsession with the song).

The super-chill synthpop band shares a similar sound to Two Door Cinema Club, and like the Cinema Club album ‘Tourist History’, Phoenix’s ‘Bankrupt!” plays like one, long and lovely transcendent musical experience.

The definition of a perfect track is something that blends and fades into other songs on a playlist, and ‘Trying To Be Cool’ does just that. Throw it in and mix it up with dance, indie, new wave. pop, new disco or house tracks and it will give you what you’re looking for.

Below is the unadulterated, untouched ultimate OG version:

How… ever… this song begs and screams for a DJ remix, hence The Rac Mix takeover.

On July 2, the band released the official video — which is, as the French say, com si, com sa. The so-so video with the extra additions of lyrics and a revving motorcycle toward the end is quite distracting from what, before the video, was a great song.You’re better off listening to track, minus the video, to best experience this tune.